Single Idea 3163

[catalogued under 16. Persons / C. Self-Awareness / 4. Errors in Introspection]

Full Idea

The most dramatic phenomena undermining the absolute reliability of introspection are those of blindsight and "anosognosia" (unawareness of one's own brain damage).

Gist of Idea

Brain damage makes the unreliability of introspection obvious

Source

Georges Rey (Contemporary Philosophy of Mind [1997], 3.2.2)

Book Reference

Rey,Georges: 'Contemporary Philosophy of Mind' [Blackwell 1997], p.85


A Reaction

It might depend on what you expected introspection to reveal. If you only expected it to tell you about your consciousness, it would be unreasonable to expect knowledge of blindsight information by introspection.